Department: Centre for Development and Environment

Author: Katharina CONRADIN

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Department: Centre for Development and Environment

Institution: University of Berne, Switzerland

Title: Natural World Heritage Sites, Tourism & Regional Development

Abstract:

UNESCO World Heritage sites are sites with an outstanding and universal value for humanity. The corresponding denomination has so far been attributed more than 900 times to sites of outstanding universal values to humanity worldwide. Despite this popularity, it has so not yet been comprehensively researched which effects the attribution of the World Heritage site status actually induces. Looking specifically at natural world heritage sites, protected area designations (of which also World Heritage can be considered one) are discussed as a promising strategy to promote sustainable regional development, precisely because they allow to guide regional development in a certain direction (e.g. as model regions for sustainable regional development, where conservation and development are inclusive and balanced, and not exclusionary concepts).

The World Heritage label contains in itself one of the core thoughts of sustainability, namely to preserve a specific good of high value in such a way that it is still available for generations to come. Nevertheless, the knowledge base on the effects induced by World Heritage sites in regard to sustainable regional development is very thin. The majority of published work on World Heritage sites and their effects are single case studies, lacking epistemological consistency and comparability. Often, they are furthermore commissioned studies that focus on one specific aspect only; and frequently there is no clear differentiation between expected effects and real impacts. However, maybe the biggest gap with regard to the effects that can be deduced to World Heritage listing is that this diverse set of studies, with their individual backgrounds, goals and sponsors, cannot offer valid conclusions regarding the factors that determine effect delivery.

The proposed paper will address some of these issues, based on a triangulation of research methods, and will hence provide important data on the impacts of World Heritage denomination on tourism and regional development. The paper summarises the results of the following steps taken as a basis for a PhD thesis:

(1) In a first step, a database is formed combining the dispersed data available on World Heritage sites. This data is combined with an assessment in the form of a questionnaire-based electronic sent to the managements of World Heritage sites. Within this assessment, which focuses specifically on Natural World Heritage sites, it is researched whether and to which extent the attribution of the World heritage status influences sustainable regional development processes (in the areas of governance, conservation, social issues, research and awareness, and economic development processes).

(2) This data is corroborated by numerous case studies from Europe, East Africa and South Asia carried out within the framework of the research project “Benchmarking World Heritage & Tourism” in 2011. Within this project, an extensive benchmarking system was developed that should facilitate a comparative, indicator-based quality assessment of World Heritage sites with regard to how tourism is handled and the sites’ long-term preservation ensured. The study combines qualitative interviews with the World Heritage site management, as well as tourism and regional development stakeholders. This approach has allowed generating a set of comparable data on World Heritage sites, while not neglecting individual and qualitative information on each site.

(3) Taking the outcomes of these two approaches, in particular the empirical analysis, the paper will furthermore suggest a typology of World Heritage sites (including natural, cultural and mixed sites) depending on the respective tourism intensity and the socio-economic development status of the surrounding regions.

All in all, the proposed work will generate a comprehensive database on World Heritage sites which is today non-existent. The absence of basic data, as well as the lack of knowledge in regard to the potential effects that are induced by World Heritage denomination, in particular in terms of tourism, are today some of the main obstacles in regard to developing comprehensive policies on sustainable tourism and world heritage sites; the research forming the basis of this paper could be an important step in addressing some of these challenges.

Author Bio:

Katharina Conradin has studied Geography, Environmental Sciences and English at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and Freiburg i. Br. (Germany) and graduated with a M.A. in Geography in 2008. She worked for an environmental consulting agency until 2011 and then became the director of mountain wilderness, an NGO for the protection of the Alps. Her major fields of interest are environmental conservation and sustainable development, which was the reason for her to start a PhD thesis addressing «World Heritage Sites and Sustainable Regional Development» at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2011, foreseen to be terminated in 2014.